Vegetarian Gardener

Vegetarian Gardener
photo of 2 hands cupping a seedling

A webquest for 9th Grade Algebra
Designed by Ms. Ouellette
Cheyanne Ouellette
cheyanne.ouellette@maine.edu

Introduction

Introduction
Congratulations! You have the chance to be the next Rachel Ray! You and your cooking partner have just been asked to compete as chefs on Food Network’s newest competitive cooking show, Vegetarian Gardener. But first you have to show your math and gardening skills by growing your own ingredients in a limited space. Back

Task
The first stage of the competition is to find a winning vegetarian recipe, and to use vegetables grown in your own garden, using only the space that the network has provided for you. You and your partner will present a diagram of your garden to the panel of judges which includes a local farmer, a mathematician, and a world-renowned vegetarian chef. You must convince each of them that you have the best recipe and garden design. Back

Process

First, you need to find a delicious vegetarian recipe that contains at least 4 vegetables and herbs, either using your own sources or one of the following links.

Once you’ve found a recipe, choose at least 4 vegetables and herbs to grow in your garden.
After choosing which vegetables and herbs you’re going to grow, use one of the following sites to find out how much room each plant needs to grow.

Once you’ve found all of the above information, put it all together; given that you only have 144 square feet, figure out which vegetables will need the most room to grow and how much of each you need for your recipe. Making an ordered list of the vegetables or herbs that need the most room in order to get the needed amount of crops will help when choosing the layout of the garden.
On a piece of paper, sketch out the intended layout of your garden and its contents. Using the information gathered about how much room each vegetable needs to grow, make a ‘garden’ using the National Library of Virtual Manipulative’s Algebra Tiles. Once you’ve mapped out the garden, save the file as an image (.jpeg, .gif, etc).
Next, open up a photo-editing program (such as Microsoft Paint) and retrieve your garden. You’re going to want to insert text boxes that contain which herb or vegetable is in each section and what the area is, as well as the perimeter measurements.
Lastly, show what each area is in square feet and prove – by adding all of the areas of each vegetable or herb – that the area is equal to 144 square feet. This information should be added as a text box on your edited image or shown and explained in your final blog entry. You should also include how many seedlings of each vegetable or herb that you will be able to grow in each row. Remember to show your answers using polynomials expressions. Check out this example! Sample
Lastly, really impress the judging panel by bringing in your version of the recipe for extra points. Back

Evaluation
The following links are the rubrics which the panel of judges will be using. Back
Presentation Rubric
Project Rubric

Conclusion
Congratulations! You managed to make your own award-winning recipe while learning how to grow your own vegetables and plant them mathematically. Polynomials really are everywhere. The more you look around you, the more you notice that math is sometimes hidden in the strangest and least thought of places. Now go start growing your own garden!
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Credits

Graphics

Hands holding dirt

http://www.happynews.com/living/gardening/cover.jpg

Swedish Muppets Chef

http://thehurricanewatch.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/swedishchef2.jpg

Bowl of veggies

http://mt.happytreefriends.com/writersblog/images/vegetables.jpg

Rubric format and ideas taken from :

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php

WebQuest inspiration taken from:

http://cte.jhu.edu/techacademy/fellows/DAVIS-S/WEBQUEST/Index.htm

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